Tactics And Tales
by Satellitehead
Summary: Lewis and Joe are two trainers who have got experience of the word of Pokémon. However, Tactics and Tales is a dramatic and exciting story where Lewis and Joe are forced to prove themselves to be the best trainers. It won't be your typical trainer story.
1. Reckless And Reckless

The two trainers stood gazing at each other. Both poised to fight and determined to win.

Joe, the taller of the two, was the favourite to win. He had explored Hoenn with his friend Lewis and had much experience.

Callum on the other hand has also explored Hoenn, but did not have the experience of travelling with someone. His tactics were based around one Pokémon and one Pokémon only.

Joe had built a whole sturdy team based around his Sceptile, but this was a one on one match. His team didn't matter.

Both trainers threw their Pokeballs onto the dusty terrain and their Pokémon were released.

As predicted, Callum had chosen his strongest Pokémon, his Aggron. He was often predictable in his choice of Pokémon and often reckless. Callum was one to go for brute force in an attempt to completely tear apart the opponents' team. He normally relied on hoping that a water Pokémon with enough stamina wouldn't pop up.

Joe has chosen his reliable and Sceptile. The trainer and Pokémon had shared a close bond and was Joe's first ever Pokémon. Sceptile's grass type should prove dominant in this battle.

In the middle of the battlefield was Lewis, the referee for the match. Joe's close friend and blood related to Callum.

"Okay," smiled Lewis, "Ready guys?" His light-hearted personality seemed to somewhat ease the tension.

Joe nodded, trying to stay concentrated.

"Yeah, get on with it!" yelled Callum. Callum was younger than Lewis and Joe and was often naïve. Callum was definitely over confident.

"Sure," agreed Lewis, running out of the arena, "Sceptile versus Aggron! Go!"

"Okay Sceptile, Return!" yelled Joe, ordering the first move.

Sceptile's speed took full advantage and charged into Aggron, who stood still. Callum grinned.

"Huh…!" replied Joe, stunned by the fact Aggron who didn't move. Return had destroyed many trainers' teams in battles previously. However, Aggron did not budge. This was because, despite Joe's strong friendship with Sceptile 'return' was of the normal type and did almost nothing to Aggron.

"GO! GO! GO! Fire Blast!" yelled Callum.

Sceptile was standing beside Aggron and the fire blast attack was quick to hit. Star shaped flames licked Sceptile and flew it backwards. Luckily for Joe, Sceptile managed to stumble onto the ground, before it could have collided into Joe. Sceptile had lost over half of its' stamina already.

"Return again! IT'S GOT TO WORK!" yelled Joe, adamantly.

Again, Sceptile rammed itself into Aggron who this time took more damage than last time due to being a little off guard.

"Double-Edge!" yelled Callum. Callum knew that Aggron was running out of PP for Fire Blast and could only use it one more time. Despite being a tad on the reckless side Callum was not stupid.

Aggron smacked itself into the Sceptile, forcing both Pokémon backwards. Aggron had received a tiny bit of recoil, but Sceptile was looking very vulnerable after the attack.

Lewis, who was watching the battle from the outskirts of the arena, was resisting the temptation to speak. He didn't enjoy watching his friend getting beat. He was hoping for Sceptile to win the match, but it was looking very unlikely at the moment.

It was even harder to watch when Lewis knew that Joe was making tactical errors. Sceptile had the move Leaf Blade, which if Joe had used instead of return Aggron would have been beaten by now. It was almost like Joe was using Callum's ruthless strategy, hoping that the pure love between Sceptile and Joe would prove to be Aggron and Callum's weakness.

On the battlefield Joe knew he had to try something else. He had finally realised using return had been reckless. He felt outwitted by Callum. If Callum was to win now he would have deserved it.

"Okay… Hyper Beam!" yelled Joe. Lewis sighed in defeat.

Sceptile let out a powerful beam from its mouth powering straight into Aggron, who struggled to defend against it for a little while. However, as Lewis thought, Aggron had resisted it for long enough.

"Yes! Now Aggron, finish him off with a final Fire Blast" screamed Callum in delight.

Callum had predicted well that Fire Blast would be enough. The star shaped flame toasted Sceptile as it fell to the floor in defeat. Callum danced around in a circle, before he ran up to Aggron and hugged it.

"Sorry Sceptile…" apologised Joe to his Pokémon as he recalled it to its' pokeball.

"Game won!" cried Lewis, "Aggron and Callum are the winners!"

Callum had finally stopped hugging Aggron. The victory meant a lot to him. Joe and Lewis had come over to him and shook Joe's hand.

Joe himself was feeling regretful and was already in deep though.

"Good game," said he said, bitterly. Joe didn't like losing.

"Heh," said Lewis, putting his arm round Joe, "It was a good match, don't worry Joe. I'll tell you a few tips later,"

"What about me?" asked Callum, in search for approval from his older cousin.

"Hah, you're such an attention seeker," joked Lewis, "Dude, you were pretty cool,"

"Mhmm…" mumbled Joe, still watching replays of the battle in his head.

That night Joe and Lewis were camping round a fire. Lewis with his newly caught Trapinch beside him and Joe with his Sneasal. Every night they'd let one of their Pokémon out with them to spend the night with them.

"You know what happened today?" asked Joe, in the middle of a conversation about sausage rolls. He had clearly been thinking about it.

"Yes?" asked Lewis, perfectly well knowing what Joe was on about.

"How did I lose? Like Callum's known for being reckless. I thought it would be a battle of pure strength, but how…? And why didn't Return work?"

"You see Aggron's got good defence. It's steel and rock type so normal attacks such as Return and even Hyper Beam wouldn't be effective."

"But Sceptile and I have a strong bond! Equally enough as you and Crobat!"

Joe was still unable to face the fact he had lost. He couldn't get his head round the fact and was starting to get angry at Lewis.

"Dude, you should have used Leaf Blade. It would have done enough damage to kill Aggron in two turns."

There was a silence in the air. Joe had finally noticed the huge tactical flaw.

"Sorry" said Joe, a moment later. "I didn't mean to get angry,"

"I know" accepted Lewis, "You've been bothered by it all day,"

"Heh, thanks Lewis," For the first time ever since the battle Joe smiled, "I've been thinking, why are we still in Hoenn?"

"Because we agreed we'd train up Pokémon like Trapinch and Sneasal," Lewis patted the Trapinch on the forehead and it smiled.

"Yeah, but how about we go somewhere else!"

"Like…?"

"Kanto, Johto or Sinnoh. What about Orre? I love Orre! I went there on holiday!"

Joe was all of a sudden happy and excited.

"Whoa! Hold on a minute," said Lewis, trying to think reasonably. He hated Orre; "We're not going to Orre, because you know how much I hate it."

"Okay, but can we go somewhere else? We'll take Trapinch and Sneasal and a few other Pokémon we can train and catch new Pokémon. It will be a whole new experience,"

Joe's idea was starting to appeal to Lewis.

"I'm starting the like your idea," admitted Lewis, "Okay, but where do you want to go?"

"Hmm…" Joe thought a while, "So… not Orre?" Lewis nodded, "Hmm… I don't want to go to Sinnoh. So Johto or Kanto?"

"Johto?" asked Lewis, "I wouldn't mind going there,"

"Johto it is then,"

"I wouldn't mind Kanto also..." Lewis noticed the point he just made was just oblivious to Joe, "Yeah… Johto."


	2. Slateport

The next morning Lewis and Joe left for Johto. They were experienced at getting up early and getting ready to leave. They decided that to get to Johto that they would fly to Slateport City and then catch a ferry that would be going in a direction near Johto.

Joe didn't sleep a wink at all that night. He had been too busy thinking about what he would do at Johto and what Pokémon he'd catch. He almost forgot about his defeat to Callum that day.

Lewis wasn't too bothered about going to Johto. He was a tiny bit excited. He enjoyed exploring new places and meeting new people. He had fully enjoyed exploring Hoenn with Joe. They were fully experienced trainers with super tough Pokémon and Johto seemed like a fun challenge.

"Go Crobat!" said Lewis, as he released the purple bat from his Pokeball, "Hey buddy!"

"Hey Crobat!" waved Joe from behind his backpack.

"Crobat, Joe and I are going on a journey around the region of Johto, to get the full of experience…" explained Lewis. However, his explanation trailed off when he suddenly thought that he would be without Crobat for a while.

Joe had suddenly noticed what had happened and rushed to put an arm round his friend.

"Yes," said Joe, talking to Crobat, "We're going to Johto,"

Lewis noticed Joe was being strong too and nodded.

"This means," said Lewis, being brave. He was finding the difficulty of saying goodbye to Crobat difficult, "I'm going to leave you in the P.C with most of the other Pokémon. I'm sorry,"

Crobat nodded understandably.

"Cro" it cried, putting its wing around Lewis.

"Thanks for understanding," thanked Lewis.

"Me and Lewis are taking two Pokémon to go with us, we'd like you to tell all our Pokémon at the same time, because it's hard for us," asked Joe.

Crobat was seen as the leader of all of Lewis' and Joe's Pokémon. Sceptile was seen as the second in command. It was almost like there was a hierarchy between the groups of Pokémon.

The Crobat nodded. It knew what it had to do.

"Thank you," said Lewis, "I've decided on the two Pokémon I will be taking to Johto, what about you?"

"Yeah, I couldn't stop thinking about it last night," replied Joe, "You're taking Trapinch? Because I'm taking Sneasal, like we said last night,"

"Yes I am. I'm also taking Spheal,"

"Okay, awesome. I'm also taking Zangoose,"

"I thought you said you hated that thing,"

"That was only when it worn all my clothes and I was running around Mosdeep naked trying to catch it!"

Lewis laughed and it broke the tension. Crobat smiled.

"Okay, ready?" asked Lewis. Joe nodded and gave the thumbs up sign. Both trainers picked up their backpacks all set to go, "Crobat, please can we fly to Slateport?"

The Crobat nodded as the blonde haired Lewis was first to sit on to the Pokémon's back. Then the black hair and tanned body of Joe perched himself behind Lewis.

Flying was a common thing in the Pokémon world. People would fly on Pokémon to places they had already been to. The general opinion of people was to not fly to places that you had never been before. It was considered a risky thing to do, because there was a high chance that the Pokémon and the trainer get lost. There was also the risk of entering international waters and then be at risk of being shot down and then arrested.

Luckily, Lewis and Joe had been everywhere in Hoenn and were swiftly gliding through the clouds towards their destination. Joe was munching on some crisps as Crobat flew them.

"Did you not have breakfast?" asked Lewis.

"Yeah, I did, but I'm hungry. You should know me by now," replied Joe.

"Yeah, duh," Lewis slapped himself on the forehead, "How on earth are you still skinny?"

"All this adventure!"

Lewis shook his head disapprovingly.

They arrived at the busy city of Slateport. Slateport was a very busy coastal town. People would freely walk around in the swimming costumes enjoying the lovely weather. It was definitely the best place to go on holiday in Hoenn.

"I'm really tempted to go out on the beach," said Lewis as Crobat landed.

"We got to go to Johto," said Joe, "There will be a beach there… probably"

The two trainers got off the Crobat's back.

"WAIT!" yelled Lewis, "I thought you went to Johto?"

"No, how did you get that impression?"

"Because you were so excited and enthusiastic,"

"Heh" Joe smiled, "Okay, so to the Pokémon Center first?"

"Yeah, we'll let Crobat talk to the other Pokémon there. Then get an ice cream. Then leave."

The two trainers healed their Pokémon at the Center. Lewis went to get ice creams while Joe sat beside Crobat and both his and Lewis' Pokémon, while Crobat told the other Pokémon Lewis and Joe were leaving for Johto. Lewis returned to the Pokémon Center, where Crobat had finished talking.

"Did Crobat speak well?" asked Lewis, handing over ice cream.

"Probably, he speaks Pokémon so I wouldn't have a clue what he said," replied Joe, pointing out the obvious.

"Oh, yeah!"

"Duh!"

"I suppose, we better say goodbye," said Lewis, ignoring Joe and addressing all of the Pokémon, "Seriously though guys…" Joe's Nidoqueen growled, "…And girls. We're all going to miss you. We will be with you in a few months and we will need you. We just feel like having another challenge. Like Crobat said,"

"Yeah, I'll miss you all too. I completely agree with stupid over here," replied Joe, having another dig at Lewis' stupid question he asked earlier.

"Thank you," said the trainers at the same time and all the Pokémon let out their battle cries.

It took a while to get all the Pokémon back in their Pokeballs and put everyone except Trapinch, Spheal, Sneasal and Zangoose in the P.C.

"So, to the Ferry," asked Lewis, who had finished his ice cream.

"Wow, you ate that fast," pointed out Joe, "Yup. Look what I found,"

In one hand Joe held his ice cream, in the other he held out a leaflet about Aggron and its evolution stages.

"Still bothered by it?"

Joe nodded, still not wanting to talk about his defeat yesterday.

The Slateport City port was as busy as ever. It was summer and everyone was going on holiday to resorts like Orre and Almia. Lewis and Joe stood in the middle of the buzzing crowd reading off the ferry times. Well… Lewis was. Joe was engrossed into his leaflet about Aggron now that he had finished his ice cream.

"It can learn surf? Wow!" read out Joe. Lewis ignored him and concentrated on the board. It read; 'JOHTO 2:15, 3:15. 4:15'

Lewis looked at his watch. It was 2:07!

"Joe! Stop reading about Callum and whatever!" yelled panicked Lewis, "We've got to rush! Our ferry leaves in eight minutes!"

Lewis dragged Joe by his arm as they pushed and shoved past tons of tourists to find their ferry and joined a short queue to pay to get on. The two of paid a short fee to jump on board and suddenly the rush stopped.

"We made it!" cried Lewis, happy that he and Joe had got on board at the earliest time. He didn't like waiting around.

"Wait dude," said Joe. His tone was serious. There was a problem, "This ships not going to Johto. It's going to Iron Island,"

Lewis' expression changed completely changed.

"Um… Iron Island? What's that like?" he asked.

"It's full of steel Pokémon, it says here in the Aggron leaflet," Joe still had the leaflet in his hand, "All the people on this ship want to catch steel Pokémon. They're all steel Pokémon lovers and we haven't got a chance fighting any of them with our current Pokémon."

Lewis cursed under his breath.

The two trainers were well known for being tactical and tough, but with their current Pokémon they would be unable to stand a chance again a Steel type. The two trainers' reputations were at risk.

"So how are we going to do this?" asked Lewis, whose thoughts were to give the challenge a try, "We're good trainers, Joe. This can be another challenge! We'll conquer Iron Island then find the next ferry to Johto. I'm not going down without a fight!"

"Those steel Pokémon will have to defeat us the hard way," agreed Joe. Their confidence was built up.

There was a silence.

"What now?" asked Lewis, a bit puzzled on what to do first.

"Could go and find a P.C," suggest Joe, "But, wouldn't that be too easy?"

Lewis nodded, the two trainers were such good friends they knew what each were thinking.

"Tactics," said Lewis and the two trainers rushed to their allocated cabins to plan their tactics.

"We really are nerdy aren't we," said Joe, as the two of them entered their cabin.

"Yep," agreed Lewis.

The cabin was clean. It was like something off T.V. The cleaners had done a great job to make the cabin look cosy and comforting. It was perfect…. Until Joe stampeded in the room and bounced onto the bed.

"You do that every time!" yelled Lewis, jokingly.

Joe was currently lying on the bed. He sat up and took off his backpack, which injured him when he landed on the bed. Lewis slotted his backpack next to his.

The next few hours the boys spend the time planning and discussing how to counter their difficult challenge of managing to overcome Iron Island with only two Pokémon each and neither of them having a superior type advantage. In theory, their tactics seemed flawless. However, they both knew that once they were out in Iron Island most of the tactics would mean nothing.

They also didn't know that waiting for them on Iron Island was something that would change both of their lives drastically.


	3. The Iron Island Challenge

_Author: Wow, I actually have a few. I'm well happy xD. Thanks! Will try to be more detailed in the next chapters, since I only just noticed it when I came to upload this chapter. Thank again :)_

* * *

The smell of the salty sea clung to Lewis' and Joe's nostrils as they got off their ferry onto Iron Island. They followed many other tourists into Iron Island's cave. The crowd drifted by the two of them as Lewis release Trapinch.

The cave was lit by torches so the tourists and trainers could walk through the cave clearly. The cave had a moist and damp feel to it, which differed from the hot sun beaming outside.

Lewis and Joe began their tactics immediately and followed Trapinch. They believed that Trapinch would be able to sense in the ground where the ground was weakest and use that information to lead the two trainers out quickly without having to fight a single trainer or Pokémon.

However, immediately the wall broke down and a huge Steelix roared out at them both. Trapinch ran in fear and curled up beside Lewis' foot.

"J-Joe you didn't tell me that Iron Island has Steelix!" cried Lewis, in shock more than fear.

The Steelix roared loudly. Joe ran quickly away. Lewis picked up Trapinch and quickly followed. However, Lewis was slower at running than Joe. The Steelix caught up with Lewis and used the move Iron Tail to send Lewis flying in to the wall, somehow still clinging on to Trapinch.

"Oww" cried Lewis in agony. Trapinch jumped out of Lewis' arms and decided to defend its trainer. The Trapinch used Earthquake from the TM Lewis had given it on the ferry.

The whole cave shook causing multiple landslides. Joe had advised Lewis to use it only in the direst situations, but Lewis had no control over this.

Joe turned round to see a landslide falling behind him, as well as access to Lewis and Trapinch. He could also hear the cries of other trainers and tourists.

Lewis had got himself off from the wall and rubbing his injured arm. He rushed towards Joe and returned Trapinch to its Pokeball. The Steelix cried as it was submerged by the rocks.

Lewis and Joe held each other, bracing rocks to fall on top of them. They knew that if they held each other they would definitely be close together once the rocks at stopped falling.

The earthquake slowly stopped and only a few rocks had fallen onto Joe and Lewis. The Steelix could still be seen knocked unconscious from the powerful earthquake attack.

"So much for tactics," sighed Joe, "How's your arm?"

"It's a bit bruised, but it will be fine," said Lewis, still rubbing it.

"Shall we send Trapinch out again?"

"Lets leave it for a little while," said Lewis, trying to catch his breath back.

The two of them spent the next few minutes wandering around the cave trying to find a way out and running away from what they thought was a Pokémon in the shadows.

Suddenly as the two trainers crept round a corner a figure walked over to them.

"Excuse me," said the figure, creeping out of the shows and revealing himself to be tall, dark, brown haired man of about thirty years old.

Lewis and Joe turned around worried that the man would challenge them to a battle.

"Yes…?" asked Joe, trying to sound as polite as possible without showing how much he didn't want to battle.

"Are you Lewis and Joe?"

The two trainers looked stunned. They knew they had a good reputation in Hoenn, but Iron Island was on the outskirts of Sinnoh. No-one would know them around there.

"Yeah we are, who exactly are you?" asked Lewis, a little bit on the cautious. Lewis didn't seem to trust this man.

"Matthew Prince, ranked the fourth best trainer in the world,"

With the advances in technology Lance, the dragon master of Kanto, had built a machine which ranked every trainer in the matches they had won, drawn and lost and the ease in which they did this. The machine also counted up the skill at raising Pokémon, the number of badges, which trainers had battled who and number of Pokémon raised to a high standard.

"Wow," gasped Joe in admiration.

"Let me remind you both of your places in the world rankings," said Matthew, surprising both trainers that he knew their rankings. Joe and Lewis only knew their rankings from two months ago and had no idea of how they had done recently.

"Lewis you are rank 121. Joe were rank 123 until you lost yesterday and fell to rank 135," recited Matthew, as if it was part of a script.

Joe cursed under his breath when he knew he had made a mistake yesterday and Matthew detected it.

"Don't worry Joe, everyone loses. Anyway, on the list of trainers with the most potential Joe is top and Lewis is third," explained Matthew.

"TOP! WAHOO!" celebrated Joe. Lewis sighed.

"If I'm third who's second?" asked Lewis, wanting to know why he and Joe weren't next to each other since they travelled around with each other all the time.

"That's why I've found you," said Matthew, this time in a more serious turn. Joe picked up on Matthew's tone and stopped celebrating, "You see. Rank 85 is a kid called Shade. He is second in the potential list,"

"And…?" asked Lewis, puzzled.

"He's not as nice as you two. He's planning to hunt down every person in the ranks above him and steal their Pokémon and kill the person in the process. The rank system has its benefits, such as to inspire young trainers and show some sort of hierarchy, but people can take it too far,"

"If he's rank 85 then he's going to kill eighty-four people!" pointed out Joe, "What? He can't do that it's just a ranking system,"

It was ironic that he was the one cheering that he had came first on the potential table a few moments ago.

"The top five are asked to help, the other seventy-nine are all being sent a letter today warning them about this calamity," informed Matthew. He was putting his life on the line.

"What can we do?" asked Lewis.

"Nothing," replied Matthew, "You both aren't good enough. However, I am here to get you out of Iron Island. Joe is top of the potential table and is at risk of getting killed, because he is above Shade. There is a man here who is twenty-seventh in the world and a woman who is fourth-sixth. Iron Island would be a perfect place for Shade to start his murdering,"

All of a sudden, being top on the potential list lost its value for Joe. He could be killed. Somewhere in the cave Shade could be waiting to kill him and steal his Pokémon. He couldn't bear that thought and shivered.

Unlike Joe, Lewis was more annoyed at the fact he wouldn't be able to stand and fight against Shade with Matthew. Shade could kill his best friend and Lewis wouldn't be able to handle that. Lewis was never going to go down without a fight. Lewis knew he wasn't at risk, but he felt like he wanted to be so that Shade would target him and not his close friend.

"I saw your Trapinch," continued Matthew, "Here's a Dig T.M. Use it and get out of here. I'll meet you outside. I'll happily fly you to New Bark Town, but just wait outside and don't cause any havoc. Okay?"

Matthew was patronising the two trainers. At first, it had felt like Matthew was praising them, but now Joe and Lewis felt like they were being bossed around.

Lewis took the technical machine that Matthew had handed him and sent Trapinch out. Lewis bitterly did what Matthew said and he took himself and Joe out of the cave. Matthew didn't even say goodbye.

The two of them arrive and there was a bitter silence in the air. Their challenge had been ruined. Lewis was annoyed that he wasn't allowed to protect his friend and Joe was getting paranoid thoughts about being a target for Shade. Lewis broke the silence.

"Did we fail or pass that challenge?"

"Don't know," replied Joe, "Feels like a fail. We were only getting started and then Matthew had to show up,"

"I want to get Shade,"

"And what? Get killed by him too?"

Joe was getting angry. Lewis ignored it and just carried on.

"No, I'd win. Joe we're going to fight Shade."

"What about Johto?"

Joe's question put Lewis off. He hadn't thought about going to Johto ever since their encounter with Matthew. Did he still want to go? At the moment he felt like just fighting. It then occurred to him that if he went in all fighting he would be doing the same ruthless strategy Joe was using during his battle against Callum. Callum. Was he at risk? So many questions were popping into his head.

"What about Johto?" repeated Joe.

"We'll do Johto, but once we get there I need to check something," replied Lewis. Once he was at Johto he would check the rankings and hope that his little cousin wasn't in Shade's firing line.

The next few minutes were silent. There was nothing else to talk about. The two trainers were left thinking about the problems that Matthew had created for them both.

Then Matthew arrived with a man and woman as he had promised.

"I know it's difficult for the four of you, I'm going to take you to your appropriate destinations now. First stop New Bark!"

Matthew sent out his Staraptor and the five people climbed on and flew it to New Bark. The journey was utterly silent. Matthew accepted the fact that these were difficult times for the trainers sharing his flight.

Lewis and Joe's flight was rather quick they arrived at New Bark town still in shock.

"Thanks," said Lewis to Matthew as he and the two other trainers left for their appropriate destinations. Joe just nodded in approval.

The scenery of New Bark Town was a blur to both trainers. The whole idea of going to Johto seemed pointless. However, both trainers knew that Matthew's words seemed to have good judgement behind them and that Joe and Lewis should begin their Johto journey.


End file.
